Nettle was used in weaving before it became popular in herbal healing.
Archeologists have discovered nettle-fabric burial shrouds at Bronze Age
sites in Denmark. In Les Miserables, one of Victor Hugo's characters calls
nettle fabric as strong as canvas. And during World War I, when cotton was
in short supply in Germany, nettle cloth was substituted.
Its use in healing also harkens back to the ancient world. Around the third
century B.C., Hippocrates' Greek contemporaries prescribed nettle juice
externally to treat snakebites and scorpion stings and internally as an
antidote to such plant poisons as hemlock and henbane.
Roman soldiers flailed themselves with nettles in cold climates because the
herb's sting warmed their skin. This practice, called urtication, evolved
into a treatment still used today for the joint stiffness of arthritis and
the intense joint pains of gout.
Early European herbalists touted nettle tea to treat cough and tuberculosis,
and strange as this sounds today, the herb was smoked to treat asthma.
Herbalists also prescribed nettle to treat scurvy and stop bleeding,
particularly nosebleeds. Somewhere along the way, nettle juice gained a
reputation as a hair growth stimulant, and it remained an ingredient in
hair-growth nostrums well into the 19th century.
Seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper endorsed all the
nettle prescriptions which preceded him, and added some of his own: "The
decoction of the leaves in wine is singularly good to provoke women's
courses (menstruation)".
American Indian women believed drinking nettle tea during pregnancy
strengthened the fetus and eased delivery. They also used it to stop
uterine bleeding after childbirth. Early settlers adopted this use, and
nursing mothers also used nettle to increase their milk production.
Nettle won't grow hair, boost milk production, or guarantee easy childbirth,
but science lends some support to a few of its age-old uses.
GOUT: Some German researchers have shown nettle juice and infusion help
relieve the pain of gout. According to medical herbalist Rudolph Fritz
Weiss, M.D., the effect "is not very powerful, but long-term use may give
definite clinical results."
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: Nettle also has some diuretic action. In Germany,
where herbal medicine is more mainstream than it is in the United States,
physicians prescribe nettle in the treatment of high blood pressure. Dr.
Weiss writes: "Nettle juice is definitely useful in diuretic therapy. It has
the advantage of being well tolerated and safe, as distinct from the
pharmaceutical thiazides now so widely used.
High blood pressure is a serious condition requiring professional care. If
you'd like to include nettle in your overall treatment plan, do so only with
the supervision of your physician.
Nettle may be safer than thiazides, but diuretics deplete the body of
potassium, an essential nutrient. If you use nettle frequently, be sure to
eat foods high in potassium, such as bananas and fresh vegetables. Pregnant
and nursing women should avoid diuretics.
